Trump fires Keshia Knight Pulliam over Bill Cosby snub

Share this:

Keshia Knight Pulliam poses backstage with the award for outstanding supporting actress in a comedy series for “Tyler Perry’s House of Payne” at the 43rd NAACP Image Awards on Friday, Feb. 17, 2012, in Los Angeles.

Pulliam — who played little Rudy Huxtable on “The Cosby Show” back in the day — was a contestant on Trump’s “Celebrity Apprentice,” the new season of which debuted Sunday night.

Trump wanted to know why Pulliam didn’t reach out to her former TV dad for a charity challenge on the Jan. 4 episode, which was recorded before every woman in the hemisphere came forward to accuse Cosby of sexual misconduct, going back to the late ’60s.

“I have not talked to Bill Cosby on the phone in I don’t know how long,” the 35-year-old actress said.

“For me to pick up the phone having not talked to you for five years, except for when we run into each other for a Cosby event, I feel that’s not my place to do,” she explained.

Trump wasn’t having it. He blamed Pulliam — the project manager — for the loss of her team, which included Kate Gosselin, Vivica A. Fox, Shawn Johnson, Brandi Glanville, Kenya Moore and Leeza Gibbons, according to the New York Daily News.

Trump said her time on the ’80s sitcom taught her “the importance of philanthropy and giving back to others.”

“You didn’t make one call that I really believe that if you’d called that gentleman he would have helped you, even if you hadn’t spoken to him in years,” he said.

“You were an amazing team with one of the most successful shows ever, so I think it would have been a good call to make for charity,” Trump added. “You have to take responsibility.”

Then he canned her.

After the show aired, Trump tweeted “This show was taped just before the terrible Bill Cosby revelations came to light.” He also defended his decision to fire Pulliam. “She still should have asked him for money,” he wrote. “Goes to charity.”